Duck's Teemu Selanne resets the puck on his side during a hockey game at the Honda Center. MIKE GREENE, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

ANAHEIM – Just how much would the Ducks and Kings meeting in the Western Conference semifinals do for Southland hockey?

Not as much as it would do for Ducks hockey.

Because the Ducks can't get there without another victory.

Before they can advance, they must conquer Sunday night at Honda Center, in Game 7 against Detroit, a relatively young, inexperienced team but one representing a franchise with perpetual playoff stubble.

Seizing a rare chance then, this game officially can be minted as a "must-win," a label that's generally as abused as the Angels' rotation.

The difference is striking, however, when the label actually applies.

Go, Ducks, Go? They better or it's going to be No, Ducks, No!

"You don't get many opportunities like this," defenseman Cam Fowler said. "You try and cherish that moment, and you look forward to it. It's another game of hockey. The stakes are just raised up a little bit."

Just a little bit.

The winner moves on to a second round of wonderful possibilities. The loser moves on to an opening round of awful questions. Like what happened and why and what happens now.

For the entire lockout-shortened regular season, the Ducks were one of the best teams in the NHL. Today, still in the opening round of the playoffs, they are three periods from joining the likes of the Florida Panthers on the league's discard pile.

In one respect, it feels like the Ducks should have won this series already. In another, the first six games have been a celebration of ridiculous resiliency, of repeated refusals to exit meekly, of leads found, lost and suddenly rediscovered again.

The stunning thing isn't that four games already have gone to overtime but rather the fact Game 7 might not go to overtime. At this point, the best bet would be wagering that 60 minutes Sunday won't be enough.

Enjoyable? Perhaps for the players, but for Bruce Boudreau these games have been about as pleasant as slamming his face in a car door.

This is Boudreau's first postseason with the Ducks, but, while coaching Washington, his teams played in four Game 7s, each at home, and won only one of them.

Before the playoffs began, Boudreau was asked why playing at home hasn't always been a big advantage in the NHL.

"I think there's less pressure (on the visiting team)," he said. "When you're on the road, a lot of times, you're not expected to win."

Only everything is riding on this game – the Ducks' season, Boudreau's reputation, Corey Perry's standing among the NHL's selected. The most dangerous of all the Ducks, Perry still is without a goal in this series.

Oh, there also is this little nugget to consider:

If the Ducks lose, we might never see Teemu Selanne play again, and there haven't been many darker developments in this team's history. The Ducks without Selanne would be a lot like hockey without the puck. Strangely different and wholly incomplete.

At age 42, Selanne has announced nothing official, but this series hasn't been his most glorious stretch of hockey and, one of these years, he is going to retire and stay that way. There's plenty of South County real estate that hasn't felt the wrath of Selanne's pitching wedge.

The winger was unavailable for comment after practice Saturday, having left Honda Center before the media arrived. A veteran move by the most veteran player in the NHL, Selanne putting the Flash in Finnish Flash off the ice, too.

Later, though, via text message, he responded when asked about the game. Yeah, Selanne is that decent of a guy.

"It won't get better than this, Game 7 in the Stanley Cup playoffs," he wrote. "That's what u have been dreaming since little boy."

Reminded, though, that this could be his final game, Selanne quickly answered, "Bad connection...haha."

As a group, the Ducks did seem loose Saturday, only hours after missing out on a chance to eliminate the Red Wings in Detroit, after losing to the same team in overtime for the third time in nine days.

They had the locker room music going, said all the right things about the opportunity and the opponent and genuinely sounded encouraged.

"This is why we play hockey, to be one of the elite," Perry said. "Game 7 is a chance to elevate yourself above and beyond."

Said Fowler: "I'm looking forward to it. No butterflies, just excitement."

No butterflies, but a chance to soar into the conference semifinals against the Kings.

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